Do you Digg? Now You Must Tweet
Monday, May 25th, 2009
Last February, we predicted that Twitter would become more important to Digg and its Diggers. Behold! Our prediction has become reality! However, little could we foresee how tightly the two services would become intertwined. Now it seems if you Digg, you absolutely have to tweet.
We’re going to take a short look at how deeply Digg has integrated with Twitter.
Tweets Have Replaced Shouts
That’s right. Digg’s shout system will be no more. If you want to share a story with a friend, the likely avenues will be through Facebook or Twitter. We predict Twitter will be the preferred choice because, unlike Facebook, it is easier to build a huge community of followers that love good content and are willing to Digg.
Is this better?
Digg’s old shout system had many flaws. However, its fatal flaw is that few could use it. To be useful, you had to be an active Digger with a large and active social network. Every month, 35 million unique visitors visit Digg, yet only a few thousand are active Diggers. With shouts on the way out, any person can tweet a link or further amplify it through the power of the retweet – giving a Digg story greater potential for going viral. Digg knows this and is gambling for a more powerful social service driven through Twitter.
More Predictions? Just one, with a side of insight.
We believe social bookmarking and microblogging will continue to become more integrated.
Twitter offers instant gratification and conversation. More importantly, Twitter’s real-time search shows what people are talking about now. In contrast, a Digg submission may take an entire day to hit the front page. Only then can a conversation heat up.
In comparison, Digg offers permanence. If a story hits the front page on Digg, it earned it. Of approximately 15,000 stories submitted to Digg everyday, only 120 get community approval. People don’t forget it. They comment on it, link to it, and spread it. Thus, Digg acts as a content filter to the internet.
So: While Twitter offers instant gratification and real-time conversation, Digg offers permanence and content filtration. Twitter will be Digg’s real-time social metric, and Digg will be Twitter’s content filter from its own noise. We think this is a beautiful marriage of Digg and Twitter capabilities.
May 25th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Let’s try —^ that again.
I can’t help but think the power diggers are using Twitter all wrong. If you look at their timeline, it’s primarily filled with retweets. Completely useless if you’re trying to find *their* content.
Stop with the retweets guys, it’s getting ridiculous and they’re completely losing meaning.
May 26th, 2009 at 7:34 am
You can spend so much time digging peoples shouts to you which arrive in your email box and then when the time to reciprocate comes along you are lucky if 10% of your mutual friends bother to digg your stuff. Digg for me is rapidly becoming just another link to my sites.
May 26th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
That’s cool shout’s are ineffective. Now they just need to lose the Digg bar & they’ll be as good as gold
May 27th, 2009 at 8:33 am
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